Foundation VI

I want to start the post with a quick recognition and show of appreciation. For our athletes at F.E. Warren and Dyess Air Force Bases, we're proud to have you and are eternally grateful for your service to our country. Thank you.

Vairety

More often than not, people accept that you go to the gym to get stronger, or in other words, to lift heavier and heavier weights over time. But don't get hung up on load. When training the body like we're talking about here, as opposed to isolated muscles, we're training performance. Performance doesn't just mean heavy weights and big biceps.

Maybe you move similar weights, but decrease your rest, this training endurance on the anaerobic level. Maybe you start looking at power development and moving that load, or just yourself, through space as fast as possible. Maybe you change up the complexity and move two lighter objects instead of one. Now, I'm not advocating that we never lift heavy. Lord knows I love lifting heavy. But we have to move beyond just lifting heavier.

Find where you can add that variety into your program. Your body, and your sustained results, will thank you.

Workout of the Week

Refer to Saturday's technique video for instruction

4 rounds:

4x KB Windmill, OH Squat & Turkish each side

.25mi sprint

Be safe. Be responsible about your load and your recovery. Take as little as you need, but take as much as you need.

Now MOVE!

Thursday Night Blowout

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, and in class, there's little chance of anyone getting out without said acceptance...

If there was a common theme this week, it was the theme of built in rest...with a catch. 5 for 10. Five barbell front squats each minute for ten minutes. So once you finish your reps, you've got the whole rest of the minute to rest until the next time. The catch is that you rest. The weigth doesn't. At no point can you rest the barbell on anything other than your body. So the test becomes, how can you work with, around, over or under the weight to take as much pressure off your muscles and rest the load on

your frame between sets. Learn how to work with your body. It's the most advanced and versatile tool you'll ever use.

Then into the court for "Hellion 1." You're going to make five trips

through the circuit, performing each movement for 50 seconds before moving on to the next. six stations, five rounds. One of your

stations is specifically a rest station. Every 6 minutes, you get one minute recovery. With 50# of sand, kettlebells, and a couple of our other choice greatest hits movements in the mix, and your only having one solid minute of rest in every six, you have to focus in part on slowing your heart rate and reoxygenating as much as possible during the ten second transition into the next movement.

In any movement, sequence, complex or combination, there are

those minute moments that you can recover, there are those unlikely positions and postures that allow different batteries to charge while others take over for a bit. Learn to look for them and exploit them for all their worth. It can make a huge difference in your experience and results.

Great job guys.

Tip & Technique: KB Complex

Here's a fun little one. I'm going to get into the intricacies of kettlebell technique later on, but for now have some fun with this. I've thrown a few of the movements from previous videos into this one complex. Enjoy.

Foundation V

Train With Complexity

If you look at most strength training programs, they use both arms or both legs at the same time & push/pull a weight in front of or below you. It's a good start, but the key is to move beyond.

A significant portion of our days are spent using one side of the body at a time, turning, twisting, reaching at odd angles.

Our training should reflect that. Again, build on the previous foundations with this. Stand up in your space. Reach across your body to pick something up off the ground. If you don't have the range of motion to perform this safely, then reach across to a low table or chair. Stand back up straight with the object. Feels pretty natural doesn't it? That's because we spend most of our day doing that. Now ind something a little harder to pick up and keep practicing.

Remember, when you go to the gym & make normal life harder, everything else is cake.

Workout of the Week

I know you're looking forward to this one...

For those of you that didn't catch the Cirbie, refer to last Saturday's video post and practice before attempting this workout.

2 Pullups

40 Cirbies

4 Pullups

30 Cirbies

6 Pullups

20 Cirbies

8 Pullups

10 Cirbies

10 Pullups

If you can't do pullups, substitute in Gravitron pullups or lat pulldown. The bottom line is to challenge yourself, but to be safe. Same goes for the load on the barbell you're using for the Cirbies. Train hard, but train safe.

Now MOVE!

Thursday Night Blowout

To see someone fighting to lift their body up off the ground one more time, simply through sheer force of will even though the muscles have clearly drained their tanks dry, to see someone hurling 20lbs through the air with every last pound of force they possess in preparation for another round when it seemed no less than a miracle that they caught the ball in the first place, to witness someone looking back over their shoulder at their partner as they hurtled across the floor, knowing that every moments delay meant that much more work to be born by the other...this is to know....Dude, you're going to want to ice that sh*t down!

I'm not sure I've seen a performance that embodied such a sense

of selfless abandon and a whole hearted sense of giving ones self over to a workout as we saw this week. When the system began to breakdown, for began to suffer, "...it's a product of my not stepping into a gym in the last 4 years..." Well, yes, if you're not accustomed to this kind of work, it's going to be hard, but let's not confuse that with a lesser degree of fitness. Fitness doesn't just exist in the gym. Some would even argue that real fitness doesn't exist in the gym at all. It exists in the rest of our lives. The gym is merely prep work.

Running, jumping, climbing, sailing, pulling, just plain moving, all of these are hallmarks of fitness. We are merely conditioned to the demands most regularly placed upon the body. I'd never last an hour with some of the rock climbers I know at my gym. My forearms would probably divorce themselves from the rest of my body in sheer protest after a mere 20 minutes or so. These folks lasted 70 minutes the other night. What's not fit about that?